Tag Archives: Neukolln

A small group of participants joined Shriya and Cordula at the Werkstadt on Emser Strasse to review the process and point of the mailbox. To put it into context as participatory arts research for DIY place-making. The questions they asked us were mostly practical ones, which made us analyze the process. As it turns out, mailboxes are a great complaint format, but are not the best to create a discussion. It seems that no one who left mail actually came to talk about what they wrote, even though we removed the mailbox and replaced it with a sign about the event. From the point of view of analyzing behavior, it shows that the act of writing and offering a solution or pointing out a problem is generally the extent to which people want to get involved in transforming their environment. To be motivated to attend a discussion was an entirely different type of urban ‘activist’ personality-either students, researchers or those simply interested in why this art project was being conducted. Nice conversations, nonetheless, and we got to share Partizaning projects and artefacts from Moscow in connection with Berlin.

Some of the letters received at the Emster Strasse mailbox. 10 letters received were in German and Turkish. People raised concerns about gentrification of the neighborhood; the rising price of rent; offered suggestions to improve the trash system; and left comments about being satisfied that there is no dog shit.

In January 2014, the first Partizaning mailbox in Berlin was installed on Emster Strasse, outside of a small local cafe. The street was picked for its prominence in the neighborhood, and also for the ease of checking for letters. The goal of installing the mailbox was to get people from Neukolln to express how they feel about changes in their neighborhoods, defined as ‘improvements’. It was also to test our tactic—would people write letters? What might they leave there? What would they say and what issues would come up?